The
release this week of the Israeli Ministry of International Affairs and
Strategy's report which definitely found that the France 2 television
infamous news broadcast of the IDF shooting a Palestinian child in Gaza
in September 2000 was a fake, is an important
victory for all of the activists and organizations that engaged in the
struggle for the truth. Mohammed al-Dura, the Palestinian youth,
allegedly seen being killed in the video footage, became the poster
child in the Arab world for the murderous intifada violence
that fueled hundreds of terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens and
Jewish communities worldwide. Thousands of Jews and Arabs had been
killed in the ensuing violence following the broadcast that lasted for
years.
The new governmental report, drafted by General (res.) Yossi
Kupperwasser, found that the IDF was in no way responsible for the
claimed shooting of al-Dura and that there was compelling evidence to
suggest that he had never even been wounded by gunfire at all.
The Committee had the opportunity to view the raw video outtakes of the
incident as filmed by a Palestinian cameraman in Gaza for France 2. As
the report states: "The committee’s review of the raw footage showed
that in the final scenes, which were not broadcast
by France 2, the boy is seen to be alive and that he moved his arm and
turned his head.”
For a copy of the full report, click
here.
In December 2007, Shurat HaDin brought a petition in Israel's High Court
of Justice insisting that the al-Dura broadcast was a malicious canard
perpetrated by the cameraman and an editor of the French television
station. We demanded that the Israel Government
Press Office (GPO) cancel the accreditations of France 2 and its editor
Charles Enderlin. While the GPO conceded that the al-Dura broadcast was a
fabrication and that it was responsible for the deaths of thousands of
people, it claimed it did not have the mandate
to revoke France 2's accreditations. The High Court, unfortunately,
agreed and ruled that the GPO did not have the authority to prohibit
France 2 from broadcasting from Israel. Following the High Court ruling
in 2008, we stated: "This modern-day blood libel
directly resulted in thousands of Jewish and Arab deaths and ignited a
still-flaming torch of international hatred, only for the sake of
raising FRANCE 2′s ratings. This was perhaps the greatest journalistic
hoax perpetrated in the last hundred years. We demand
that those who are responsible for this crime will bare the consequences
of their actions. The State of Israel cannot simply allow FRANCE 2 to
remain in this country."
It has taken the Israeli government another 5 years since the High Court ruling to finally issue its report.
This week we continued our demand that those at France 2 responsible for
what has now been officially deemed a dangerous hoax, be placed under
arrest and charged with all of the murders and damages this fabricated
incitement has rendered. France 2 and Enderlin
must have their press accreditations revoked and be thrown out
of Israel.
Issuing the report is a major step forward in the battle for the truth
but justice requires that those responsible for this massive blood libel
must finally pay.
For an article about Shurat HaDin's call for justice in the al-Dura case, click
here.
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